Ice Nine Kills sold 10,000 copies of debut EP on Warped Tour 2008 without actually playing

Ice Nine Kills spent their 2008 summer at each date of Warped Tour—but they weren’t actually on the tour. They followed Warped to each date that year, selling copies of their debut EP, The Burning, to anyone that would give them the time of day. 

“We sold 10,000 EPs doing it that summer,” frontman Spencer Charnas told APTV correspondent Nick Major. “My [personal] quota was 100 a day—I wouldn’t stop until I hit 100. I walked around from 8 o’clock in the morning to 8 o’clock at night, hating my life—being sunburned and listening to a bunch of kids being like, ‘Your band’s not good. That’s why you’re not playing.’” [Laughs.]

Watch: Ice Nine Kills get spooky in The Exorcist-inspired music video

He added, “But to this day, I still have kids come up to me and say, ‘I bought The Burning EP at Warped Tour 2008 and you guys are one of my favorite bands.’ So that’s always nice to hear, ‘cause it shows me that [hard work] payed off.”  

You can check out the segment where Charnas and Major chat about INK’s humble beginnings on Warped ’08 below, along with the rest of our exclusive interview. The band’s latest studio album, Every Trick In The Book, is out now on Fearless Records. You can see them on the remainder of this year’s Warped Tour.